Our Secret
by Jillian Lanner
Summary: **An H2O Just Add Water FanFiction with different characters and storyline.** Jill, Alice, and Rikki moved to Australia from the United States. After a long day of unpacking, the girls take a boat to an island and afterwards they become mermaids.
1. Chapter 1The Island

**Chapter 1~The Island  
**It was now almost a week after the business team of Lanner, Harper, and Davis had moved their families to the city of Gold Coast, Australia. It was the third move of the year and Jillian Lanner, Alice Harper, and Rikki Davis were sick of all the moving around. No matter where they moved, they could never make any good friends before it was time to move again. So after a while they decided to stick together so that no matter where they went they never had to say goodbye.

"This place is so weird," Rikki mumbled as they walked along the sidewalk in their new neighborhood. The girls decided to go check out the beach that was down the street from their new homes.

"It's not too bad," Jill shrugged, trying to be optimistic, "I mean, it's got a beach and palm trees."

"We had that stuff in California," Rikki reminded her as they neared the beach, "Besides, the people talk funny and the driver's seat is on the wrong side of the car."

"So what? Who cares?" Alice asked in her usual perky voice.

"I do, that's who," Rikki answered. Jill shook her head and laughed quietly.

"Rikki, you always have something to complain about," Jill told her with a smile.

"That's because there's always something to complain about," Rikki replied with a grin as the three of them stepped onto the beach.

"Hey, look at that," Alice said in a suddenly quiet voice, pointing toward an island out in the distance. Rikki and Jill followed Alice's gaze to the island. They let out a quiet gasp when they caught sight of the island. There was something beautiful, mysterious, and magical about that island. What it was, they did not know.

"Wow. That island is beautiful," Alice and Rikki whispered in unison.

"Why don't we take a boat out to the island and get a closer look?" Rikki suggested, looking from Alice to Jill.

"Yeah! Let's go!" Alice exclaimed excitedly with a big grin.

"Jill?" Rikki asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"I don't know," Jill replied, unsure.

"Sorry, you're out-numbered," Rikki told her with a shrug, leading them over to the boat docks. Jill and Alice followed close behind.

When they'd gotten to the island, they jumped onto the beach and pulled the boat out a little farther onto the shore. Then, they made their way inland. They weaved in and out of trees and bushes and tripped on a few rock here and there. Finally, they came to a small waterfall with rocks and boulders everywhere. They climbed up onto the boulder from which the waterfall flowed.

"This place is so____WHOA!!!" Alice screamed as she slid down into a dark cave. Rikki and Jill glanced at each other then back at the dark cave.

"Alice! Are you OK?!" They shouted down the cave in unison.

"Yeah! Just a little freaked out!" Alice answered from the bottom of the cave.

"Well, do you think you can climb back up?" Jill asked loudly. There was a shuffling sound from down in the cave and then it stopped.

"No. It's too steep!"Alice told her. Jill thought for a second then decided to come down to Alice.

"Look out! I'm coming down!" Jill warned, then she jumped into the cave, Rikki followed close behind. Jill hit the bottom of the cave and let out a small, "Ooof!" Seconds later, Rikki crashed into her.

"OUCH!" Jill shouted falling flat on her face, "A bit of warning would've been nice, Rikki!"

"Sorry," Rikki apologized in a defensive sort of way, "How are we supposed to get out of here?"

"Well, you were supposed to stay up there and throw down a rope!" Jill exclaimed fustratedly, sitting up and wiping the dirt off herself.

"What rope?! There is no rope!" Rikki yelled back, "We're in the middle of a deserted island!!!"

"SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU!!!" Alice yelled, her face turning a bright red. Jill and Rikki looked at Alice in shock. They'd never seen Alice so angry. Alice was usually the peace keeper and never seemed to get too mad.

"Sorry," Jill and Rikki mumbled in unison. Alice let out a big sigh and smiled at her friends.

"Thank you," Alice thanked in a quiet whisper. "Now Jill, it was pretty stupid to think that there was a rope somewhere out here.

"But..." Jill protested, but Alice quickly silenced her. Alice turned to point at Rikki and said, "You should have looked for something to pull us up."

"Like what?!" Rikki asked crossing her arms in front of her and raising her eyebrows.

"I don't know! A long tree branch maybe!" Alice replied, rolling her eyes in an annoyed way, "So how _are_ we going to get out of here?" The girls looked around the cave and spotted a small tunnel. Rikki and Alice's blue eyes stopped at the tunnel. Jill continued to look for a way out. Rikki looked from Jill to Alice then back at Jill, slightly confused.

"How about this tunnel?" Rikki suggested, pointing at the tunnel behind her. At the suggestion, Jill's face went a ghostly pale.

"No way!" Jill refused shaking her head, "There's probably snakes and bugs or-or-"

"Do you have any better ideas?" Rikki asked, putting her hands on her hips, "We can't get out the way we came. It's the tunnel or we stay down here."

"Fine," Jill mumbled in reluctant agreement, crossing her arms, "But if I get attacked by a snake, it's your fault."

"I can live with that," Rikki told her, nodding her head. Then she turned around and crawled into the tunnel, followed closely by Alice. Jill sat in the same spot for a few more seconds, her mouth wide open in shock then reluctantly followed Alice. They crawled through the tunnel for, what felt like half an hour. Finally they came to the end of the tunnel and walked into a big, rocky, underground space. On one side of the space, there was a small, blue pool. Above the pool was the cone of the volcano. The sky was dark and the stars were out.

"We're gonna be in so much trouble when we get home," Jill muttered, shaking her head, "I'll be grounded for weeks! Maybe even a month!"

"Maybe there's a way out through this pool," Alice thought aloud, ignoring Jill's comment, "I'll check." She sat down and started to take her shoes off. "You guys stay here," Alice ordered as she stood up and got ready to dive.

"No problem," Rikki replied, leaning against a large rock wall. Seconds later, Alice dove into the pool. Jill sat down next to the pool and stared at the water, watching closely for Alice. "This place is really cool," Rikki commented looking around herself as she walked over and sat next to Jill, "Don't you think?"

"Yeah, it is…I guess," Jill somewhat agreed with a shrug.

"What do you mean 'I guess'?" Rikki asked somewhat surprised. Jill was usually the most adventurous of the three. It was very rare that Jill would pass up any opportunity for any kind of adventure.

"What is up with you today?" Rikki demanded. But before Jill could answer, Alice was back.

"I was right, it's about a twenty second swim out," Alice told them.

"Great, let's get out of here," Rikki sighed as she started to take her shoes off.

"Are you this is the only possible way out?" Jill asked desperately. Rikki and Alice exchanged looks of confusion then looked back at Jill.

"Positive," Alice assured her, "Why? What's wrong?"

"I don't know. There's just something weird about all of this," Jill replied with a shrug, slowly starting to take her shoes off, "About this island, the cave, and that pool."

"Now that the mention it, I have been getting a weird feeling about this too," Rikki agreed, nodding her head and looking up at the cone-shaped opening above the pool.

"Me too, but we have to get out of here, so come on," Alice ordered, gesturing to her friends to get in the pool. Tossing her shoes to the side, Rikki stood up and jumped into the pool.

"Come on Jill. We don't want to have to leave you here," Rikki warned only half joking. Sighing, Jill stood up and, closing her eyes tightly, she jumped into the pool.

"Ready?" Alice asked once Jill came back up. But before Jill or Rikki could even nod in reply, the pool started to bubble. The three of them looked up at the cone-shaped opening above them. Directly above the pool, centered in the opening was the full moon. The girls stared at the moon until they could no longer see it. Once the moon was out of sight, the pool stopped bubbling.

"Wow," Jill said, a little shaky.

"Come on, let's get out of here before anything else weird happens," Alice told Jill and Rikki, with a note panic in her voice. They nodded and quickly followed Alice out of the cave through the pool. Once they were out, they quickly swam to the surface. They took one last glance at the island behind them then turned their backs on the island. Suddenly, a bright light from a rescue boat flashed on them.

"Please calmly and quickly make your way over to the boat!" a man with a megaphone on the boat ordered. So the girls quickly swam over to the boat. Another person on the boat helped them on board and gave them each a towel.


	2. Chapter 2The Discovery

**Chapter 2~The Discovery**

Jill awoke late the next morning. A ray of sunlight lit up the whole room. She groaned and slowly sat up on her bed. Opening her eyes, she looked over at her alarm clock. It was 10 am. Dragging her feet as she went, she headed into the bathroom. When she glanced into mirror, she grimaced. Her hair was everywhere and she had a mark on her right cheek from the creases in her pillow.

"I should take a bath," Jill mumbled to herself as she walked over to the bathtub. She grabbed her shampoo, conditioner, and body wash and set them beside the tub. Once the tub was filled, she turned off the water and got in the tub, eyes closed. She let out a sigh of relief as she sat in the warm water. About ten seconds later, Jill felt an odd tingling in her legs and then it felt like her legs had formed together to make one leg. Confused, she opened her eyes and gasped when she saw that her legs had turned into a long, gold mermaid tail. Her eyes widened at the sight of it, scared and confused.

_**~With Alice~**_

Alice had always been an early bird and despite what had happened the night before, today was no different. She woke up at about six-fifteen and decided to take a walk along the beach. It was quiet and deserted. The only sounds she could here were the sounds of the crashing of waves, seagulls, and the sound of the sand being kicked around. Alice took a deep breath as the cool ocean water splashed around her ankles. She closed her eyes as a soft, fresh ocean breeze hit her face. Seconds later, her legs started to tingle and felt like they were sticking together. Then, the tingling stopped and her legs felt like jello. She opened her eyes as she began to wobble back and forth, losing her balance. She fell rapidly toward the ground, face first.

_What the heck is going on? _She thought, utterly confused. Alice turned over onto her back and looked down toward her legs. Her face turned a ghostly white when she realized that her legs were now a long, gold mermaid tail.

_**~With Rikki~**_

Rikki would have woken up later if it wasn't for the loud arguing from next door. Someone was always arguing with someone else for one stupid reason or another. At least that's what the old lady that lived across the street had told them. Even though Rikki had only been living there a week, she was already sick of it.

_Jill and Alice are so lucky they live on a different street, _Rikki thought as she got out of bed and got dressed. She glanced at her alarm clock. It was 9 am, an hour earlier than she usually woke up in the summertime. She walked into the hallway and listened. She heard nothing. She knocked on her parents' door, but got no response. So slowly and quietly she opened the door and poked her head in. The room was empty and the bed was already made.

She closed the door and headed downstairs. The living room and the kitchen were both deserted; but there was a small note on the fridge for her, obviously from her mom. Rikki took the note off the fridge and read:

Rikki,

Your father and I had to go to work early today. Please lock the doors and move the clothes from the washer to the dryer. We'll be home around 6 o'clock.

Love you,

Mom

Rikki put the note down on the counter and headed into the laundry room. She put the clothes that were in the dryer into an empty basket. Then she turned to the washer and opened it. Without looking, she stuck her hand in and grabbed some clothes. She dropped them when she realized that they were all soaking wet. The water didn't drain again! Rikki huffed as she closed the washer and put it on 'SPIN.' As she started to walk away, her legs started tingling. They felt like they were morphing together. Then the tingling stopped and she fell backwards, landing with a loud thud. Not sure what was going on, she lifted herself up into a sitting position. She let out an earsplitting scream when she saw that her legs were now a long, gold mermaid tail.

*************************

Rikki, Alice, and Jill agreed to meet at the juice bar down by the beach at noon to talk about what had happened to them earlier that morning. It was half-past noon and the juice bar was very crowded. The three girls sat in the back corner of the room to avoid attention.

"So we grow these tails ten seconds after we touch water and they don't go away until we're dry?" Alice whispered to her friends; Rikki and Jill nodded in agreement.

"I told you there was something weird about that island!" Jill whispered loudly, crossing her arms in from of her, "And now because of that stupid island, we turn into fish every time we touch water!"

"What is up with you?" Rikki demanded, crossing her arms also, "The past two days you've been acting all weird!"

"What?! How?" Jill questioned in disbelief.

"First of all, _you _are usually the one who gets all excited when something weird happens and now all you can do is complain about it!" Rikki told her fustratedly, "You've been so negative about what happened!"

"I am not!" Jill protested, "Right Alice?"

"Actually, you are being negative," Alice replied honesty. Jill said nothing for a few moments. Was she really being that negative? Realizing her friends were right, she dropped her arms into her lap.

"I am, aren't I?" Jill asked in a quiet voice. Rikki and Alice nodded in agreement, "I'm sorry guys, I don't know what's come over me."

"It's alright Jill," Alice assured her.

"Yeah, just don't do it again," Rikki ordered with a smile, "It's kinda scary."

"You guys want to go for a swim?" Jill asked, her voice filled with sudden excitement.

"Now that's the Jill I know," Alice said with a smile as her, Jill and Rikki stood up, "Let's go."

"Wait," Rikki told them, "We've got to promise not to tell anyone about this mermaid thing, not even our families. We'll keep it our secret. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Jill and Alice said in unison. With that said the three girls left the juice bar and headed to the beach. They ran straight into the waves and dove into the water. They knew that that their secret would change their lives forever.


	3. Chapter 3Mermaid Power

Chapter 3~ Mermaid Power

It was now almost two weeks after Jill, Alice, and Rikki became mermaids. The girls spent most of their time hanging out at the island, which Alice had found out was called Makko Island. School was to start soon and that worried the girls. They'd been new to many schools over the past five years but never to a school in a different country so they had no idea what to expect. Jill was back to her usual self and saw the upcoming school year as an adventure waiting to happen, Alice saw it as a great learning opportunity, and Rikki saw it as she always saw school, as just another way that adults try to keep them busy and out of their way. After a few days of worrying about it, the girls decided to forget about it for now and enjoy the remaining days of their summer vacation.

"You know, I'm really starting to like it here." Rikki announced as the trio enjoyed a juice at the local juice bar.

"Heck yeah! This place is awesome!" Jill agreed with a big smile. The three of them laughed as Jill reached for her juice. As she did, her juice started to slide away from her. She looked at it, confused, and reached for it again. Once again, it slid away from her. What in the world was going on?

"It is," Alice commented, neither her nor Rikki noticing Jill's juice sliding away. "I love Makko Island. It's so beautiful and__."

"Hey guys, look at this." Jill interrupted, not taking her eyes off her juice. "Watch the juice." Confused, Rikki and Alice watched as Jill reached for her juice and it slid away.

"Whoa! How'd you do that?!" Alice asked in surprise. Jill shrugged and, aiming her hand at the juice, started to move her hand as if she were turning an invisible doorknob. Rikki quickly smacked Jill's hand down onto the table when she saw what her friend was trying to do.

"Are you crazy?!" Rikki whispered loudly, glancing around them to make sure that no one had seen. "Do you want someone to see?!"

"Oh yeah, sorry." Jill apologized, putting her hands down in her lap. "Let's go to Makko."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Rikki protested in a loud whisper. "How come _you _got a super power and we didn't?!"

"I don't know," Jill answered with a shrug. "You guys probably did too. You just haven't found them yet, I guess. Let's go to my house and we can try to figure it out." Alice and Rikki exchanged glances, then both agreed. When the girls had gotten to Jill's house, they headed upstairs and into the bathroom. Jill turned on the water faucet to the bathtub with her newly found power and giggled excitedly. Alice and Rikki rolled their eyes at their over-excited friend. Once the bathtub was filled, Jill turned the water off.

"Alice, you go first." Jill told her, moving to the side.

"What do I do?" Alice asked, not sure what to do.

"Just point your hand at the water and do something." Jill replied with a shrug. Alice nodded and let out a big breath. She pointed her right hand at the water in the tub and moved her hand as if she were turning an invisible doorknob. Nothing happened.

"Nothing happened." Alice informed Jill, dropping her hand to her side and looking over at Jill.

"Try moving your hand differently." Jill suggested. Alice looked back at the water and focused all of her attention on the water in the tub. Slowly, she pointed her hand at the water again. She moved her hand, making it look as though she were telling the water to stop. Almost instantly, the water in the tub froze.

"Whoa!" Alice exclaimed excitedly. She jerked her hand away and smiled. "I wish I'd known I could do this earlier!" Looking at her hand, Alice moved to the side next to Jill.

"OK Rikki, your turn." Jill told her, gesturing to the tub. Excited, Rikki stepped up in front of the tub. She stared at the now frozen water in the tub, as if concentrating really hard. She waved her hand at the water. Nothing. She tried again, still nothing happened. After the third try, Rikki gave up.

"How come you two got powers and I didn't?!" Rikki asked, outraged. Jill and Alice just shrugged. Rikki glanced at the tub and tried one last time. When nothing happened, she dropped her hands to her sides.

"Maybe you just haven't gotten it yet." Jill suggested with a small shrug. "You probably will get one." Rikki rolled her eyes and clenched her fists angrily. Suddenly, the water in the tub melted and started to boil.

"Whoa! Rikki, look!" Jill exclaimed in surprise, pointing at the water in the tub. Rikki turned to see the water in the tub boiling. At the sight of it, her mouth dropped open in surprise and she unclenched her fists. The water stopped boiling when she unclenched her fists.

"I told you." Jill said in that I-told-you-so sort of way.

"This is so cool." Rikki commented, looking down at her hand with a big smile on her face. "I can't believe that we have powers over water! How much cooler could this get?" Rikki looked up at her friends, who were both smiling widely.

The next day, the girls all did their own thing. Alice had to stay home and watch her little brother James and Rikki had various chores to do. Jill on the other hand, had nothing to do except clean her room. Once she was done with that, she headed downstairs to the living room to watch some TV. Unfortunately, her twelve-year-old sister, Erica, who was the same age as Alice's little brother, was watching cartoons. With a sigh, Jill headed back up to her room. She flopped down on her bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering what to do.

_I should write in my diary, _Jill thought, sitting up and grabbing her diary and a pencil. She hadn't written in her diary for about two weeks. Usually she wrote in her diary every day but ever since what had happened at Makko, she hadn't. She opened her diary up to a blank page and wrote:

Dear Diary,

So many things have happened in the last two weeks. A lot of it is weird, but at the same time it's cool. About two weeks ago me, Rikki, and Alice went to this weird island and fell into this cave. We couldn't climb back out so we crawled through this tunnel to the end of the cave. There was this really awesome pool under the cone of the volcano. We got in and the water bubbled and then we swam out. The next day, we found out that we were mermaids! It was so cool! But kinda scary. And now, we have these cool powers over water! This has got to be the coolest thing that's ever happened to us!


End file.
